Explorers and Travellers

On the 31st they came to the lower falls, where the river narrowed to one hundred and fifty yards and fell twenty feet in a distance of four hundred yards, while below was another exceedingly bad rapid. The upper rapid was so filled with rocks that Crusatte, the principal waterman, thought it impracticable, so a portage of four miles was made over the route followed by the Indians. “After their example, we carried our small canoe and all the baggage across the slippery rocks to the foot of the shoot. The four large canoes were then brought down by slipping them along poles placed from one rock to another, and in some places by using partially streams which escaped alongside of the river. We were not, however, able to bring them across without three of them receiving injuries which obliged us to stop at the end of the shoot to repair them.”

On November 2d, Lewis was intensely gratified by the first appearance of tide-water, and pushed on with the greatest eagerness until he reached Diamond Island, where “we met fifteen Indians ascending the river in two canoes; but the only information we could procure from them was that they had seen three vessels, which we presumed to be European, at the mouth of the Columbia.”

As he went on, small parties of Indians in canoes were seen and many small villages, principally of the Skilloots, who were friendly, well disposed, desirous of traffic, and visited so frequently as to be troublesome. One Indian, speaking a little English, said that he traded with a Mr. Haley. The weather had become foggy and rainy, but on November 7, 1805, while pushing down the river below a village of the Wahkiacums, the “fog cleared off and we enjoyed the delightful prospect of the ocean – that ocean, the object of all our labors, the reward of all our anxieties. This cheering view exhilarated the spirits of all the party, who were still more delighted on hearing the distant roar of the breakers, and went on with great cheerfulness.”

Lewis, not content with a sight of the ocean, went on, determined to winter on the coast. A severe storm forced him to land under a high rocky cliff, where the party had scarcely room to lie level or secure their baggage. It “blew almost a gale directly from the sea. The immense waves now broke over the place where we were encamped, and the large trees, some of them five or six feet thick, which had lodged at the point, were drifted over our camp, and the utmost vigilance of every man could scarcely save our canoes from being crushed to pieces. We remained in the water and drenched with rain during the rest of the day, our only food being some dried fish and some rain-water which we caught. Yet, though wet and cold and some of them sick from using salt water, the men are cheerful and full of anxiety to see more of the ocean.” Here they were confined six days, and the rain had lasted ten days, wetting their merchandise through, spoiling their store of dried fish, destroying and rotting their robes and leather dresses.

A series of gales and long-continued rain did not prevent Lewis and Clark from exploring the country for a suitable place for winter quarters. Lewis finally discovered a point of high land on the river Neutel, where a permanent encampment was established which was called Fort Clatsop. It was situated in a thick grove of lofty pines several miles from the sea and well above the highest tide.

The fort consisted of seven wooden huts, which were covered in by the 20th of November and later picketed, so as to afford ample security. The party subsisted principally on elk, of which they killed one hundred and thirty-one. Fish and berries were much used in the early spring. Salt was made in considerable quantities on the sea-shore, and some blubber was secured from a stranded whale, 105 feet in length. In general, the winter passed without serious results, except that the health of some of the men was impaired by the almost constant rains, there being but four days without rain in the first two months.

The conduct of the many Indian tribes with whom they had communication was almost always friendly, and in only one or two cases did even strange Indians from a distance show signs of hostility. The northwest coast had been visited so often that little could be added to the knowledge of their customs and mode of life. One comment of Lewis, is, however, worthy of reproduction. “We have not observed any liquor of an intoxicating quality used among these or any Indians west of the Rocky Mountains, the universal beverage being pure water. They sometimes almost intoxicate themselves by smoking tobacco, of which they are excessively fond, and the pleasure of which they prolong as much as possible by retaining vast quantities at a time, till after circulating through the lungs and stomach, it issues in volumes from the mouth and nostrils.”

It appears surprising that Lewis was ignorant of the discovery of the Columbia River by Captain Robert Gray, for he says that the name Point Adams was given by Vancouver. Further, he was ignorant of the fact that the trade at the mouth of the Columbia was conducted almost entirely by vessels from New England. From the English phrases of the Indian, he knew that the traders must be “either English or American,” and presumed “that they do not belong at any establishment at Nootka Sound.”

The original plan contemplated remaining at Fort Clatsop until April, when Lewis expected to renew his stock of merchandise from the traders who yearly visited the Columbia by ship. Constant rains, however, increased sickness among his men, while game failed to such an extent that they only lived from hand to mouth; and as merchandise lacked wherewith to buy food from the Indians, it became necessary to return. On departing, he left among the Indians a number of notices setting forth briefly the results of his expedition; one of these, through an American trader, reached Boston via China in February, 1807, about six months after Lewis’s own return.

On March 24, 1806, the party commenced to retrace their long and dangerous route of 4,144 miles to St. Louis. Their guns were in good order and the stock of ammunition plentiful, but their entire stock of trading goods could be tied up in a single blanket.

Detained by scarcity of fish, they discovered the Multonah (Willamette) River which, hidden by an island, was not seen on their downward voyage. Lieutenant Clark went up the valley some distance to Nechecole village, where he saw an Indian house, all under one roof, 226 feet long.

Of the valley of the Willamette, Lewis remarks that it was the only desirable place of settlement west of the Rocky Mountains, and it was sufficiently fertile to support 50,000 souls. He mentions its rich prairies, its fish, fowl, and game, its useful plants and shrubs, its abundant and valuable timber.

The conditions of the rapids below The Dalles was such that one boat, fortunately empty, was lost, and the upper rapids being impracticable, they broke up or traded all their boats and canoes but two, which were carried to the upper river. They proceeded with the horses, that had been purchased with the greatest difficulty, Bratton, too ill to walk, being on horseback, and on April 27th reached a village of the Wallawallas, near the mouth of Snake or Lewis River. Here they were so well received that Lewis says: “Of all the Indians whom we have met since leaving the United States, the Wallawallas were the most hospitable, honest, and sincere.”

Their horses recruited to twenty-three head, cheered by information of a new route which would save eighty miles, and with Wallawalla guides, they moved in early May up the valley of Snake or Lewis River, and finding it too early to cross the mountains, encamped in the forks of the Kooskoosky, having meanwhile received back from their savage friend Twisted-hair their thirty-eight horses intrusted to his care the previous year. Their journey by land was marked by great scarcity of food, which was roots or dog, except when the officers, practicing medicine for sick Indians, obtained horses for food. The use of dog, which was now very palatable, caused derision among the Indians. On one occasion an Indian threw a half-starved puppy into Lewis’s plate, with laughter, which turned to chagrin when Lewis flung the animal with great force into the savage’s face and threatened to brain him with a tomahawk. The Indians lived almost entirely on fish during the salmon season, and on roots the rest of the year. Their houses were collected under one roof, with many apartments, and two were seen each about one hundred and fifty feet long. The difficulties of communicating with the Chopunish were very great, and if errors occurred it was not astonishing. Lewis spoke in English, which was translated by one of the men in French to Chaboneau, who repeated it in Minnetaree to his wife. She put it into Shoshonee to a prisoner, who translated it into Chopunnish dialect.

An attempt in early June to cross the mountains failed, the snow being ten feet deep on a level. On June 24th they started again, and with great privations succeeded in following their trail of the previous September across the Bitterroot Mountains to Traveller’s-rest Creek, on Clark Fork, which was reached June 30th.

Here the party divided in order to thoroughly explore different portions of the country. Lewis took the most direct route to the great falls of the Missouri, whence he was to explore Maria’s River to 50° N. latitude. Clark proceeded to the head of Jefferson River, down which Sergeant Ordway was to go in the canoes cached there. Clark himself was to cross by the shortest route to the Yellowstone, and building canoes, descend to its mouth and rejoin the main party at that point.

Lewis went into the Maria’s River country, but was unable to proceed far through lack of game. He there fell in with a band of Minnetarees, who attempted to steal his arms and horses, which resulted in a skirmish wherein two Indians were killed, the only deaths by violence during the expedition. Then turning to the mouth of the Maria’s River, they were rejoined by Ordway’s party, and on August 7th reached the mouth of the Yellowstone, where a note from Clark informed them of his safe arrival and camping place a few miles below.

Clark had explored portions of the valleys of the Jefferson, Gallatin, and Madison, and had prescience of the wonders of the Yellowstone in a boiling-hot spring discovered at the head of Wisdom River. His journey to Clark’s fork of the Yellowstone was made with comfort and safety, but there an accident to one of his men obliged him to make canoes, during which delay the Indians stole twenty-four of his horses.

As Lewis descended the Missouri he saw that the tide of travel and adventure was already following in his track, and two daring Illinoisans, Dickson and Hancock, were at the mouth of the Yellowstone on a hunting trip. Rapidly descending the river the 23d of September saw the party safe at St. Louis, the initial point of their great and eventful expedition.

The great continental journey to and fro, from ocean to ocean, across barren deserts, through dangerous waterways, over snow-clad mountains, among savage and unknown tribes, had been accomplished with a success unparalleled in the world of modern adventure and exploration.

This expedition was fraught with successful results second to none other ever undertaken in the United States. The extent, fertility, and possibilities of the great trans-Mississippi were made known, the possibility of crossing the American continent was demonstrated, the location of the great rivers and of the Rocky Mountains determined, the general good-will of the interior Indians proved, and the practicability of trade and intercourse established. Furthermore, conjoined with the discovery of the Columbia by Gray, it laid the foundations of a claim which, confirmed by settlement and acknowledged by Great Britain, gave the United States its first foothold on the Pacific coast, and ultimately secured to the American nation not only the magnificent States of Oregon and Washington, but also the golden vales and mountains of California.

Well might Jefferson declare that “never did a similar event (their successful return) excite more joy through the United States. The humblest of its citizens had taken a lively interest in the issue of this journey.”

Clark was an able and faithful assistant to the unfortunate Lewis, who did not live to write the full story of the expedition. It seems, however, that the disposition in some quarters to regard Clark as the man to whom the success of the expedition was in greater part due, finds no justification in a careful perusal of the narratives. So great a work was enough glory for the two men, the commander and the assistant.

Clark’s future career must be considered somewhat of a disappointment. During his absence he was promoted to be a first lieutenant of artillery, and on his return was nominated by Jefferson to be lieutenant-colonel of the Second Infantry; but the Senate, by a vote of twenty to nine, declined to confirm him, and he resigned his commission as lieutenant February 27, 1807. Later he was an Indian agent and a brigadier-general of the militia for the territory of upper Louisiana, with station at St. Louis. In 1812 he declined an appointment as brigadier-general, and the opportunity of having Hull’s command – a declination which was an injury to his country if he had the military ability attributed to him. Madison appointed him Governor of the Territory of Missouri, which office he filled from 1813 to the admission of Missouri as a State in 1821. Contrary to his wishes, he was nominated for the first governor, but failed of election. Monroe, in May, 1822, appointed him Superintendent of Indian Affairs, with station at St. Louis, which office he filled until his death, September 1, 1838.

Captain Lewis did not live to long enjoy the honors that he had so bravely won. He reached Washington the middle of February, 1807, when Congress, which was in session, made to both leaders and men the donation of lands which they had been encouraged to expect as some reward for their toil and danger.

The President considered the discoveries of sufficient importance to present them to Congress in a special message, on February 19, 1806, and in appreciation of Captain Lewis’s valuable services, immediately appointed him to be Governor of Louisiana, which office Lewis accepted, resigning for that purpose from the army on March 4, 1807.

Of the civil services of Governor Lewis, Jefferson says: “He found the Territory distracted by feuds and contentions among the officers, and the people divided into factions… He used every endeavor to conciliate and harmonize… The even-handed justice he administered to all soon established a respect for his person and authority.”

While on the way to Washington, in September, 1809, Governor Lewis, in a fit of derangement, killed himself, thus, to quote again from Jefferson, “depriving his country of one of her most valued citizens,” who endeared himself to his countrymen by “his sufferings and successes, in endeavoring to extend for them the bounds of science, and to present to their knowledge that vast and fertile country, which their sons are destined to fill with arts, with science, with freedom, and happiness.” Surely posterity will declare that Meriwether Lewis lived not in vain.

VI

ZEBULON MONTGOMERY PIKE,

Explorer of the Sources of the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers

The trans-continental expedition of Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Clark was only a part of the comprehensive plan of Jefferson, which looked to the acquiring of definite and precise information concerning not only the extreme Northwest Territory, but also of the entire trans-Mississippi regions, whereon might be based intelligent action, so as to insure to the citizens of the United States the greatest benefits of internal trade and commerce. It was surmised that the adventurous and enterprising traders of the Hudson Bay, or Northwest Company, had encroached on the valuable hunting grounds near the sources of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers; while to the southwest the secretive and jealous policy of Spain had so well guarded its limited geographical knowledge, that the United States was in such utter ignorance of its newly acquired territory that it was impossible to even outline a definite proposition for the determination of exact boundary lines between Louisiana and the province of New Spain.

The obtaining of information for the solution of these problems was intrusted, in the order named, to a young and promising officer of the regular army, Zebulon Montgomery Pike, then a first lieutenant and paymaster in the First regiment of Infantry. Pike was of military stock, as his father, Zebulon Pike, had served as a captain in the war of the Revolution, and even then a major of his son’s regiment was destined to live to see that son fall as a general officer. The son, born at Lamberton, N. J., aspired early to military life, and from a cadet in the ranks rose through the grades regularly.

I. The Sources of the Mississippi

In 1805 the governor of Louisiana was James Wilkinson, a brigadier-general in, and commander-in-chief of, the army of the United States, who was then stationed at St. Louis. Pike appears to have been considered by Wilkinson as an officer well suited to obtain definite information about this vast territory, and consequently Lieutenant Pike, with twenty enlisted men, was furnished provisions for four months, and, under orders to visit the sources of the Mississippi, left St. Louis in a large flat-boat, at about the worst season of the year, on August 9, 1805.

The first experiences were not encouraging, for the crew, through inexperience or ill-luck, developed a faculty of picking up sawyers, or submerged trees, which on one occasion stove the boat so badly that, half-sinking, she was dragged with difficulty on a shoal where the baggage could be dried and the boat repaired.

Here and there along the river were seen small bands of Indians, and in due time the village of the Sacs was reached at the head of the Des Moines rapids. The Sac chiefs, assembled in council, were told that their great and new father had sent one of his young warriors to their nation, in the lately acquired territory of Louisiana, to inquire as to their wants, to give them good advice, to make peace, and to locate, according to their wishes and needs, trading establishments and posts. The Indians answered acceptably, but appeared to appreciate the presents of knives, whiskey, and tobacco more than the speech. Vague rumors obtained as to the value and importance of the lead mine near, below Turkey River, but Mr. Dubuque, the proprietor, was too shrewd for the young officer, and to his inquiries said that information as to the grant, etc., was in St. Louis, that he made from ten to twenty tons of lead yearly, and gave equally indefinite answers to other questions. A journey of four weeks from St. Louis brought Pike to Prairie-du-Chien, then the only place settled by white men in the whole valley of the Mississippi above St. Louis. Originally occupied by three Frenchmen, Giard, Antaya, and Dubuque, in 1783, it was now a scattered settlement of thirty-seven houses, with about three hundred and seventy whites. The Wisconsin River, which here joins the Mississippi, was yet the great line of communication between the great lakes and the entire valley from St. Louis northward, all goods and furs passing to and fro over the route first traced by Joliet in his adventurous voyage of discovery in 1673. At Prairie-du-Chien the Indians assembled each autumn for the annual trade or fair, and every spring the Indian traders here paused in their western journey before plunging into the savage wilderness. Both these occasions, it is needless to say, furnished frequent scenes of violence and dissipation.

Unable to get his large barge above the rapids at Prairie-du-Chien, Pike hired other boats above the falls and proceeded, his party augmented by an interpreter, Pierre Roseau, and Mr. Fraser, a trader who was going to the Falls of St. Anthony on business.

A short distance above Prairie-du-Chien, Pike had a council with the Sioux, who evidently were recovering from a feast, and here he saw a religious puff dance, “the performance of which was attended with many curious manœ uvres. Men and women danced indiscriminately. They were all dressed in the gayest manner; all had in their hands a small skin of some description, and would frequently run up, point their skin, and give a puff with their breath; when the person blown at, whether man or woman, would fall and appear to be almost lifeless, or in great agony; but would recover slowly, rise, and join in the dance. This they called their great medicine.”

Tobacco, knives, vermilion, and whiskey cemented the good feeling, the eight gallons of whiskey being more show than reality; for it appears from the context to have been three-fourths water, and probably was of the kind which Pike elsewhere called “made whiskey.”

The uncertain weather of Lake Pepin nearly shipwrecked the boats, which reached the Sioux village at the junction of the Mississippi and St. Peters, or Minnesota, on September 11th. Here a council was held with the Sioux, wherein two of the chiefs formally signed away a square league of land at the Falls of St. Anthony. The true value of their signatures may be estimated from Pike’s letter to General Wilkinson, wherein he says: “I had to fee privately two (doubtless the signers) of the chiefs, and besides that, to make them presents at the council.” In addition to the transfer of land Pike pledged to have a trading post established there, and urged that the Sioux maintain peaceful relations with the Chippeways.

It is somewhat amusing to read Pike’s address, where in one breath he states that rum “occasions quarrels, murders, etc., among yourselves. For this reason your father has thought proper to prohibit the traders from selling you any rum;” and then accepting the situation, adds, “before my departure I will give you some liquor to clear your throats.” There were two hundred and fifty warriors present, and it appears to have taken sixty gallons of liquor to effect the clearing operation, while peace with the Chippeways assumed an indefinite phase.

The Falls of St. Anthony were passed by land portage. These being the first boats to make the portage, as Pike claims, it was with no small feeling of relief that he saw his boats in the upper river, loaded for the journey, on September 30th. His condition was at the best discouraging, for as he says, “I had not accomplished more than half my route; winter fast approaching; war existing between the most savage nations in the course of my route; my provisions greatly diminished, and but a poor prospect of an additional supply. Many of my men sick, and the others not a little disheartened; our success in this arduous undertaking very doubtful, and about to launch into an unknown wilderness.”

Rapids and shoals impeded progress somewhat, but the 10th of October brought them to an island where the interpreter had wintered with another Frenchman in 1797. Pike made every exertion to hasten, for he was very desirous of reaching Crow-wing River, the highest point ever attained by trappers in birch canoes. The bad weather, snow, injury to his boats, and the breaking down of several of his men, combined to render further advance impossible, and on October 16th he fixed his winter quarters at the mouth of Pine River, 233 miles above the Falls of St. Anthony. Pike’s intentions were far from passing the winter himself in a wretched cantonment, for his was a nature foreign to such isolation and inactivity as the place promised.

Elsewhere he adds: “It appears to me that the wealth of nations would not induce me to remain secluded from the society of civilized mankind, surrounded by a savage and unproductive wilderness, without books or other sources of intellectual enjoyment, or being blessed with the cultivated and feeling mind of the civilized fair.”

Huts were built, canoes made, game obtained, all with great difficulty and hardship, for every burden fell on Pike, without the aid of a doctor or assistant as his second in command. In a game country, and under conditions where his insufficient food-supply must be eked out by the rifle, he was such an indifferent hunter that he did the maximum of work with the minimum of result. Unskilled in canoe-making and management, he succeeded in building three canoes, of which one sank, wetting and injuring his supply of ammunition, with the result that finally he blew up his tent in drying out the powder.

Occasionally small hunting parties of Sioux or of Menominees came to the camp, and on December 3d Mr. Dickson, who had a trading post sixty miles to the south, visited Pike and cheered him up. Dickson possessed much geographical information about the western country, and in addition to useful directions as to the best route for Pike to follow, expressed his confidence in its fullest success.

It would seem doubtful if the men shared the enthusiasm for a mid-winter trip through an unknown country filled with savages and where game must form a considerable part of their food. At all events, they managed to split a canoe which their commander relied on for the journey. Pike was dissatisfied, but not discouraged, and on December 10th started northward with eleven men, a boat, and five sleds.

At the stockade there were nine men under Sergeant Kennerman, who was given detailed written instructions as to his duties. Mindful of the possible dangers to his own party, Pike also gave orders as to the course to be pursued if his own party did not return to the cantonment by a given date the following spring.

A boat was taken along, which the freezing river soon obliged Pike to abandon and intrust to a young Indian for the winter. The journey was practically made by common sleds, dragged by men harnessed up two abreast. Often the sleds broke down, making necessary frequent changes and portages of the baggage, but they were greatly encouraged by camping at Crow-wing River, the farthest point ever reached by canoe.